Judy Garland pops a great many pills in Act II of “End of the Rainbow,” the new Broadway show about the consequences of her fame, set six months before her fatal overdose in 1969. Yet at a recent rehearsal
Tracie Bennett, the actress portraying Garland, wasn’t feeling sufficiently strung out as she sang “Come Rain or Come Shine” with her six-man orchestra in the show, which weaves famous Garland
numbers with scenes set in her London hotel suite.

… If “End of the Rainbow,” written by Peter Quilter, is a tabloid portrait of Garland in twilight — Judy drinks! Judy swears! Judy falls! Judy throws an ashtray at her soon-to-be fifth
husband, Mickey Deans! — Ms. Bennett is deeply protective of, almost reverent about, her character. It’s not that she is a lifelong Garland admirer; growing up in northwest England
in the 1960s, she preferred Gene Kelly movies. Rather, whether instructing her band or putting pressure on herself, Ms. Bennett said, she was preoccupied with illuminating and honoring “the essence of
Garland” for those who might be suspicious of a Briton showing Broadway how Judy should be done.